The Pretender
by ChangerOfNames
Summary: A scared eight year old took his last breath in a different universe and body, hidden amongst the shadows of what had been long abandoned. A tired eighteen year old breathed her first breath in a different universe and body, observed carefully by unwise old Academy instructors. Two lives were ruined in that moment, neither understanding what happened, but both irrevocably unhappy.


The moon was high in the sky, lighting even the darkest of shadows up in a shade of blues and greys. Grass that would have been green had it been any lighter swayed lightly, a gentle breeze singing throughout the vacant streets. A police car hesitated at a corner, no other cars around, before it turned to continue on its patrol. Driving past a tall brick building, one would be hard pressed to think it held anything except mold and dirt. Windows were smashed in, some boarded up, some boards smashed in.

The building was a mix-match of old and new. Old bricks, new bricks, old boards, new boards. Litter and various junk scattered itself amongst the back of the wizened building, some having been there years and others having arrived weeks ago. Rusted and broken fire escapes crawled up the building, a trash can set up by broken steps. Opposite that fire escape, a fully functional fire escape with boarded up doors along the side of the building climbed, thin plywood covering the ladder leading to the caved-in tar roofing. Amongst the lower levels, a door was agape, a simple shadow coalesced into the vague form of a person.

Small clouds escaped the person's lips as audible gasps.

Stars, bright in the sky, soon faded to the might of the sun as it made its way closer and closer to the horizon. A few cars pull into the rough and unkempt parking lot of the worn-down building, and in the low light only the pale skins and glowing beams made the officers visible, others not visible at all amongst their own kin.

After a short search, the searing beam finds vacant grey eyes. Despite the cool air, and the cloudy puffs coming from the cop calling out to his compatriots, no mist escaped the lips of the figure. More lights joined the first, and the glint of silver and ruby red ruined the days of ten different people.

Five cops, three medical personnel, one manager, and one brother of what had been gone hours before being found.

Elsewhere, a young child laughed amongst friends as they all wondered what test they could possibly be shown at the ripe age of eight. A swirling vortex of Time waited patiently to fix its mistake. Two fixed points in time had been ripped to shreds. One life ended. One life saved. The vortex knew that it had to fix this before the Multiverse was irrevocably shredded, and when a pair of curious green eyes stared in horror into the vortex, displaced two souls.

A scared eight year old took his last breath in a different universe and body, hidden amongst the shadows of what had been long abandoned.

A tired eighteen year old breathed her first breath in a different universe and body, observed carefully by unwise old Academy instructors.

Two lives were ruined in that moment, neither understanding what happened, but both irrevocably unhappy about it.

The horror previously etched into the eyes of the green-eyed boy turned into a curious, if weary, gaze. His gaze emptied of emotion as it swept to the side, watching a blackette kid run in fright, and a brunette kid stumble back in shock, shaky hands reaching up to hold his head. The girl-turned-boy understood who those two were, amongst the others that did much the same.

Green eyes found the vortex once more, and stared into its depths for far longer than anyone else in existence ever had.

"Good job. You are all prepared to take the next step in becoming Time Lords. Commander Three, go and retrieve the few that ran away. Koschei, Zeus, Loki, Quirk, follow me."

Quirk, as that seemed to be the boy's new name, turned his gaze to the also unmoving Koschei, before returning his gaze back to the vortex of Time. He found it incredibly unfair. He had been _happy_ in those moments of death, whether he truly wanted to die at first or not.

Averting his gaze for the last time, headache pounding away at his head, he strode over to the still unmoving kid, and grabbed their hand and tugged him away.

"I hate everything, but that doesn't mean we're not friends. Come on," Quirk demanded flatly.

"W-we've never spoken. Aren't you a _mute_?" Koschei demanded.

Quirk was distinctly unprepared for that, and chuckled, "Am I? Aren't you _eight_? Those are particularly ignorant, I thought," Quirk questioned.

"You seem to think you're someone else," An Academy instructor noted.

Quirk looked the instructor dead in the eyes, "I have just looked into the got-damned _void_, and you expect me to want to identify as who I once was? Or, would you prefer me silent and useless?"

The Academy instructor shut the fuck up after that, Quirk noted with a dulled sense of amusement. With a scoff, the eight year old slowly warmed up to Quirk and started talking about various things that Quirk probably was supposed to know. These next few decades would be tough, Quirk realized, silently mourning for himself.

* * *

**AN: So, do you like it? If so, thank you and leave a review. If you don't, flame, or tell me what you hate about it. This will be a pretty typical story, if I get around to it. No romance. Barely any friendship. This will be more of a... Uh, well, I'm not quite sure yet. Not angst, more... A cause-and-effect story. Don't even know if I'll continue it. Depends on how people like it. A long-winded story, for sure, if it _is _continued. 60k+, for sure, and hopefully 100k+ if I have the willpower for it.**


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